Deepyaman Datta is a little shy, and very polite.

But don’t let that fool you.

Deepyaman Datta, a Southwest Junior High School seventh-grader, is a chess ace. He ranks fourth on a U.S. Chess Federation list of the top 100 11-year-old players in the nation.

When the 12-year-old is on his own turf the chess board he’s a wild man.

Deepyaman, a seventh-grader at Southwest Junior High School, has a will to win and enough talent to earn his growing reputation as a strong opponent.

How good is he?

Deepyaman ranks fourth on a list of the top 100 11-year-old players in the nation, according to the U.S. Chess Federation. (He recently turned 12 and will move up to that age division on the next ranking.) He is the only Kansan on the list.

More proof of his ability is found in Deepyaman’s bedroom, which is dominated by trophies, medals and plaques from various chess competitions over the past few years. Some of the trophies are doozies, reaching all the way up to Deepyaman’s chin.

“I started playing at the age of 6 when I was in the second grade,” said Deepyaman, the son of Deepak and Shraboni Datta. “I hadn’t ever really played before. It sounded interesting, so I gave it a try.”

He honed his skills by playing and competing with the Quail Run School Chess Club for four years. The club has swelled to 60 members in recent years, drawn, in part, by word of the accomplishments of Deepyaman and his fellow players.

The list of Deepyaman’s chess tournament victories keeps growing.

At the National Elementary Chess Championships a year ago in Kansas City, Mo., he played in the open division for kindergartners through sixth-graders. He placed 10th in the main competition and fifth in the blitz or speed chess event.

Last summer at the U.S. Junior Chess Championships in Tulsa, Okla., Deepyaman placed first in the under-11 category. And in December, playing in the U.S. National Scholastic K-12 Grade Championships in Dallas, he placed fourth in the seventh-grade category.

Deepyaman likes the excitement of national chess tournaments.

“It’s very fun when you play, but it’s challenging, because the other people there want to win, too,” he said.

Deepyaman is rated by the U.S. Chess Federation as an A-grade player, which is the rank right below expert.

To keep his game sharp, Deepyaman likes to play with members of the Lawrence Chess Club and the Kansas University Chess Club.

“They show me what I’m doing wrong, and they also give me practice playing the game,” he said.

Most of the people who play in the clubs are older, but Deepyaman said the age of the players wasn’t important in chess.

“It really doesn’t matter how old you are it’s how good you are,” he said. “Any age (player) can be just as good.”

Sometimes he plays against his sister, Anjali, a 9-year-old fifth-grader at Quail Run. She’s a darned good chess player in her own right: In the U.S. Chess Federation under-10 category for girls, Anjali ranks second.

To succeed, Deepyaman puts a lot of effort into his chess game.

“Talent is something. But more important is the concentration and determination,” Deepyaman said. “When you’re playing chess, it all comes down to determination.”

It’s easy to learn the basic moves of the game, he said, but players can work on perfecting their strategy for years.

Deepyaman offers some advice to chess beginners of any age.

“Just keep trying, even if you lose,” he said. “My first tournament I lost all my games, but I kept on playing.”